How to get your property offer accepted

This week we’re exploring that critical preliminary step to buying any property: making an offer!

Working out how much to offer is essential, but presenting your offer correctly makes a massive difference too. We look at:

• How to build a relationship before making any kind of offer
• Whether to offer in writing or over the phone
• If you should start with your maximum bid, or go in lower
• If it’s a good idea to explain why your offer is lower than they’d like
• What to say and do to put your offer in the best light

Our news story this week is that the volume of property transactions is falling for the first time since 2009, as reported by City AM.

It seems to be driven by a general lack of supply, but a reduction in buy-to-let activity can’t be helping. Could we see a tweak to Stamp Duty soon to get the market moving again?

And our resource of the week is another interactive map! This one shows how affordability has changed across the UK since 2007.

You can see the stats for any area you’re interested in, but playing with the slider and looking at how the picture changes across the country over time is instructive too.